Welcome to my blog. I home school Jenson and Wren, who are 6 and 4 years old respectively. We live in Cheltenham in England with my husband, Simon, and all manner of animals including chickens, rabbits, a dog and a handful of fish. This is an online diary. It's a place for me to keep a record of the highs and lows of our home ed experience.

This last week has been a rather bitty one. On Monday and Tuesday Jenson had his usual tutoring sessions, for which we spent a good deal of time Monday morning doing a lovely project about The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

It would be fair to say that this year we have been a bit distracted with family matters and so our effort for Children in Need fell sadly short on the day itself. What is so lovely though is how things have a way of working themselves out.

This last week has been a rather bitty one. On Monday and Tuesday Jenson had his usual tutoring sessions, for which we spent a good deal of time Monday morning doing a lovely project about The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

It would be fair to say that this year we have been a bit distracted with family matters and so our effort for Children in Need fell sadly short on the day itself. What is so lovely though is how things have a way of working themselves out.

For the last few weeks we have been on a magical journey of discovery, story telling and some serious LEGO building as we've explored the wonderful world of Greek Mythology. This has been one of our most memorable projects to date and Jenson has accomplished some of his most challenging LEGO constructions.

This week is our geology and fossils week so what better way to kick things off than with our very own excavation of our beloved fox, who we found on the side of the road and buried in our garden six weeks ago.

Thursday and Friday saw preparations get under way for our first ever car boot sale or table top sale as Jenson has been calling it. He's desperately trying to save up for a new LEGO box and came up with this idea over the Summer.

Today was our first official day back at (home) school after an enjoyable Summer spent mostly by the sea. I know there are some home schoolers out there who don't believe that learning ever stops for a child, but for me, I needed a break even if the children didn't!

Today was a bit of an epic as it turns out. Despite being a Sunday, it wasn't a day of rest. In our world of home schooling learning never stops, whether it's learning how not to kill each other or learning about more traditional subjects, we seize any opportunity.

The natural world has provided us with a wealth of learning material these past few months and this week was no different. Sadly on this occasion, it was a lesson about how cruel nature can be. The story didn't have a happy ending.

It's hard to know where to start with this blog to be honest. It would be fair to say there was a massive fall out after the excitement of Wren's painting party on Tuesday, which left us all feeling exhausted on Wednesday.

The Great British Bee Count began on 19th May 2017 and has been going on across the whole of the UK for the last month or so. It comes to end this Friday. It's an initiative that takes place every year and was set up by Friends of the Earth to help raise awareness about how much trouble our bee populations are in.

For the last eight weeks the children and I have been observing a pair of nesting blue tits in our garden. We have spent many enjoyable days watching these delightful little birds getting on with their business and we miss them now they have reared their young and flown away. It has been a wonderful learning resource and has provided a fantastic insight into their world.

The world of home ed takes us on some surprising adventures. Today for example we acquired some caterpillars from a friend who had posted something on Facebook. I'm not sure how she ended up with a pot full of the little creatures but they have been a fantastic learning resource for the children.

WOW! What a scorcher it has been. I was fortunate to have the weekend off but with Simon in London on Saturday and me and the children all feeling a little tired/hung over from Friday's grand day out and evening shenanigans we holed ourselves up and chilled with movies rather than attempt anything strenuous.

Today we paid a rather impromptu visit to the Three Counties Show Ground to see the rural and countryside show. It was a super day out and one that I'm so pleased to have done today rather than at the weekend when the temperature is set to sore. We also benefited yet agin from a quieter day without all the crowds of families.

Yesterday I took the children to Sudeley Castle for a day of fun in the sun! It was a PE class with a difference as we climbed trees, scaled the fortress, took on the assault course and generally wore ourselves out!

We are really feeling the highs of home ed again after a tough couple of months where, to be honest, it felt like we were wading through mud. School had become a serious contender again as things reached breaking point. So what's changed?

Last week I took advantage of the fact everybody was on half term and spent most of the week trying to clear my work load. I don't feel half as guilty doing this knowing everyone else is on a break. It works out well as the usual places we go to tend to get very busy during holidays and the benefit of home schooling is we can do our excursions once everyone has gone back to school. We're a bit spoilt really.

This past week has been a complete disaster. Our trip to London the previous week left both Jenson and myself feeling extremely tired and the events in Manchester have left me feeling very unsettled. Consequently, I spent three days this week caught in a battle of wills. By Thursday I'd had enough and was so desperate for a truce that I whizzed the three of us down to our holiday home for a 24 hour detox by the beach.

Last week was a busy one as momentum picked up with the sale of our London pad. We were also celebrating Jenson's birthday and I had a few photo shoots to squeeze in too. Blog writing is down to one a week at the moment as the workload cranks up.

The Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth is, quite simply, wonderful. It is a haven of calm and tranquility quite unlike anything I have experienced before. Turns out it isn't just a sanctuary for donkeys, but also people. It would be fair to say it has been the best three days Jenson and I have ever spent together.

After a lovely Easter weekend spent in Kent with family, came the hideous car journey back to Cheltenham. The man at the petrol station had no idea how ironic his statement was when he asked if that bottle of wine I was buying was to get me through the traffic!

Today's Little Bud's Gardening Club was an Easter special! It was nice to welcome back some of the children who had attended two weeks ago and brilliant for them to see how much the seeds had grown that they had planted. More on that later though.

Our special Easter themed LEGO Club was cracking good fun today! There was plenty of creative thinking from both the parents and the children as we all tried to make some fantastic Easter Lego models and mosaics.

Yesterday was a really busy day. As well as continuing our work on our wildflower meadow and having lots of fun with the sprinkler, we also did some quilling. This was all Jenson's idea after he found a feather at Park Campus on Wednesday.

Inspired by The Great British Bee Count that is taking place from 19th May to 30th June, we have decided to create a wildflower meadow in the hope to attract more of these wonderful insects to our garden. Over time, I hope it will become a great place of learning and interest for Jenson and Wren, where they can discover more about nature, eco systems and habitats.

British Science Week officially kicks off on Friday but we've been getting into the swing of things early on the basis that the weather forecast for next week looks much improved and therefore we don't want to be stuck inside conducting science experiments when there is a beautiful beach to enjoy. Ah, the beauty of home education.

Today was one of those days when you could really feel Spring was just around the corner: the sun was shining, Jenson had his shorts on and we were all happily playing in the garden. Today's project was weaving willow fish.

For the last five days we've been attempting to sprout our own seeds. I got the idea from one of my many kid gardening idea books and it seemed like a great way to get my own children involved in growing a few things as the onset of Spring approaches.

Today was a good day despite being heavily distracted with a few of my own worries. That's the only drawback with home schooling, if you've got stuff on your mind and want to take a quiet day to mull it over there's no chance. You just end up getting short tempered with the kids.

This morning Jenson and I were at Slimbridge Wetland Centre for their first ever home ed session! I had been really pleased to bag a place on this very popular session, having seen it pop up on my Facebook feed. I had called them straight away and managed to get the second to last place!

It's a new year and it feels like we are really finding our home ed feet. I know when we started this journey there were a few doubters, there probably still are. I however am no longer one of them. I don't care what anyone else thinks. Jenson thinks I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread and his is the only opinion that counts.

Jenson has a keen interest in submarines and is particularly interested in periscopes at the moment. What better way to learn all about them than by visiting a real life submarine at the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth!

Saturday morning and we were all looking forward to Daddy arriving for the weekend! The children leapt on him before he'd barely walked through the front door and after another one of Grandad's hearty breakfasts we were all back on the beach to see what more we could find.

Friday was windy but very sunny and so a great day to get down to the beach and explore. The thrill of finding a giant lobster claw or complete shell from an edible crab is so exciting! It was super nice to see Jenson outdoors enjoying the fresh air and taking a keen interest in nature and his environment.

It's been over a week since my last blog but what a week it's been! I'm feeling slightly exhausted from all the travelling and activities we've been doing, not to mention the traumatic events surrounding our beloved dog Remy.

The home ed life is certainly proving to have great variety! After yesterday's up and downs, today was a new day with lots of new fun to be had. Who knew when we woke up this morning that by this evening we would have made some life size art!

It's been a day of mixed emotions. Our beloved dog Remy has been diagnosed with the canine equivalent of breast cancer. We won't know more until Wednesday. It left me feeling very upset and certainly not in the mood for a party, which is what Jenson and Wren had in mind from the moment they woke up. There's nothing like having kids though to pull you out of your thoughts and back into life and to be fair, a good party was what I needed to cheer me up.

Today we've enjoyed conducting some science experiments using a kitchen science kit that my sister bought the kids for Christmas. Each experiment requires certain apparatus from the kit as well as common kitchen ingredients.

We had a quiet day today after yesterday's busy activities. We were all still in bed at 8am and lounged around in our pyjamas most of the morning. I did a few emails and cleaned out the chickens while the kids did Lego/craft/watched Stick Man.

I've been involved in many school nativity plays over the years, both as a participant when I was little and watching my little ones as a parent. Today's take on the birth of Jesus was by far the most original and inspiring.

I think it would be fair to say that today was pretty difficult. It all started this morning. I could hear Jenson struggling with his Lego as I struggled to pull myself out of bed after a difficult night spent with Wren who had joined us at about 2am.

This morning we were at Nature In Art for a special home education craft event. If you've not been, Nature in Art is a museum and art gallery at Wallsworth Hall inTwigworth, Gloucester. It is dedicated exclusively to art inspired by nature in all forms, styles and media.

So the really mad part of our trip to the MAD Museum was driving back home afterwards. We had barely got out of Stratford before I felt a strong judder in the car. It could only mean one thing: flat tyre.

I feel we are really settling into the home school way of life. We never have a set plan for the day; at the moment I am led by the children's interests. This seems to be working really well for us. I know this might have to change as Jenson gets older and unschooling may have to give way to more formal learning, but for now I feel that what we are doing fits really well with where Jenson is at.

Our best days are the ones that unfold naturally; where little is planned. Today for example we started off in the den before heading out to Montpellier Park to meet friends. I must admit that today's trip to the park was more a chance for me to meet my friends than Jenson's but the kids still had a great time running around for two or three hours getting lots of fresh air.

Quite a lot has been going on since my last blog. I had a full day of work on Friday and then the weekend was spent celebrating Simon's birthday. It's been a nice couple of days. The children in particular seem particularly happy. Dare I say it, but I think Jenson is finally shaking school out of his system. Even one of our friends said he noticed how much calmer he was.

I was left feeling very proud of Jenson again today as he made a big fund raising effort to support Children In Need. With my help and encouragement, he baked lots of spotty biscuits that we then sold by knocking on people's doors in return for a donation.

WOW! What a difference a day makes. There are too many adjectives to list: helpful, kind, polite, empathetic. I really can't remember a day that I've seen Jenson behave as grown up as he did. I don't know where it all started either - I wish I did!!

This morning was a big LEGO step forward in our home ed journey. We opened our doors and hosted a wonderful 90 minutes of LEGO led play. It was Cheltenham's first ever LEGO club and after today's success I'm hoping for a similar turn out every week!

Wow! What a wonderful windy morning we spent on a desolate and deserted Woolacombe Beach! I don't think I can ever remember it being so barren and yet so beautiful. The wind whipped the sand across the beach in poetic style; dunes danced to the beat of the blustery conditions and the sea sang some serious tunes.

It was a bit of a struggle today. The sunshine from yesterday seemed as distant as the fun we had. Some pyjama play preceded a brief beach visit, which mostly involved eating all the lunch I'd made for them so by lunch time, (when they were actually hungry) we had no food. They had a nice enough time squashing some old sandcastles that we'd seen a little boy make the day before. Jenson enjoyed climbing the rocks, but Wren was cold and not in the mood.

Last Thursday we were up the Bath Road and popped into Roots and Fruits for a loaf of their very yummy bread. They had oodles of unwanted pumpkins lining their shelves, each reduced to just £1. Lurking among them all I spotted something very large, very round and very orange! Jenson got super excited at the enourmous size of the pumpkin and I got super excited when I was told it was reduced from £12 to just £2!! We had a very brief lesson about bargains as I lumped the thing into the boot of the car.

Since starting home education, work has replaced wine of an evening! The photo editing I used to do while Jenson was at school is now done while Jenson is in bed. It's just like the old days really, pre-school, but it's amazing how quickly you forget how it feels to have to burn the midnight oil and how easily you get used to lighting that candle again.

Fair to say it was a very slow start to the day. My tummy bug was proving hard to shift, and no matter how hard I tried to keep my eyes firmly shut, the dulcet tones of my children were hard to ignore!

Today was a big day as Jenson's friends returned to school after half term and we took our first official step into home schooling. It seemed apt that we should be spending the day preparing for and having a party. Although it was to celebrate Halloween, a part of me couldn't help but feel how fitting it was that we should also be celebrating this momentous day.

Oh what a great day we had today! Once again it was a craft marathon. By the time I got up at 8am, (oh I love no school runs!) Jenson had made a video game out of a felt tip pen, masking tape and a piece of wood, a pair of binoculars and an entire Lego city model.

Today was a real half term day spent with school friends at the Cotswold Farm Park. It was a Halloween themed week at the farm and anyone in fancy dress got a free go in their lucky dip! I arrived at 10.30am with a skeleton and Little Bo Peep

Day 2 and I can see the transformation in Jenson already. On Wednesday, his final day of school and the last day of school before half term, it was as if someone had stuck a screw in his head and was slowly twisting it, driving it in, making him go slowly insane. He was hyperactive and frenzied, unable to settle and extremely agitated and aggressive.

I can't quite work out if we're on half term or officially home schooling! Jenson doesn't really understand either. He's asked me a few times now if we can visit his friends at school and my explanation never really seems to answer his question. I think it will hit home when everybody else goes back to school. So for now I'm a bit confused. Do I let Jenson have a week off doing not very much or do we get stuck into home education?

For weeks now I've been thinking of opening sentences to write for my first blog and now that I'm stood here, fingers poised, ready to type, my mind is a maze of sentences and jumbled words of where to start.